A row between a saver and a US corporate giant over £3,700 of pension contributions highlights how crucial it is to keep old schemes updated and chase every last bit of red tape.

Shane Bujold, a 32-year-old accountant, has accused former employer SC Johnson of unfairly withholding a chunk of his pension fund, and blamed bungled messages by its administrator Aon Hewitt for his predicament.

SC Johnson told This is Money that it had followed the rules, and pension provider Aon defended its conduct in a response published below.

Mr Bujold said he was 'utterly appalled and devastated' that a communications breakdown involving missed messages and disputed deadlines ended in SC Johnson refusing to hand over company contributions to his UK pension pot.

The case involves transferring an old work pension and a letter sent to him telling him that if he did not act by a certain date then he would lose the company contributions.

But the household goods firm refused to relent over Mr Bujold's pension cash, and has only sent him a cheque for around £1,700 to cover his personal payments into his pension, while keeping his employer contributions.

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The firm told This is Money: 'SC Johnson is committed to treating employees with respect, dignity and fairness. The employee received a full refund of his pension per the company’s rules.'

This is Money has covered several previous cases where savers almost lost thousands of pounds of pension cash because of missed or delayed post, which also highlighted the importance of keeping old workplace schemes updated on your whereabouts.

Those cases involved another household goods firm, Reckitt Benckiser, which backed down and agreed to return thousands of pounds of employer pension contributions to its former staff, not just their own contributions.

Contact your pension provider when leaving an employer... and every time you move home

It is very important to keep your current and old workplace pension schemes updated on your whereabouts.

Not only do you avoid traps like the one highlighted here, but you can keep tabs on the size of your old pots and their charges, and switch up investments or move funds entirely if necessary.

Aon Hewitt is also Reckitt's pension administrator, but the firm said it did not believe Mr Bujold's case was the same as the others.

In a twist, Mr Bujold would have been automatically entitled to his full pension savings under new rules launched in October 2015.

However, he fell foul of old legislation on pension transfers for early leavers with under two years' service, because he joined SC Johnson the January before that.

He also lost out because SC Johnson has a workplace pension scheme run by trustees and not one contracted out to an insurer. At the time he worked there, the latter type of scheme already allowed workers to retain rights to their old pots whenever they moved jobs. See more below about pension transfer rules.

How did saver end up losing an estimated £3,700 of pension cash?

Shane Bujold took a job at SC Johnson's Surrey office after moving from Ottawa in Canada to Hampshire to be with his partner, and he worked there for 15 months until March 2016.

He says three months after leaving for a new job, he had to chase up information about his pension with SC Johnson because he had heard nothing about it.

US corporation: SC Johnson has its global headquarters in Racine, Wisconsin, and a UK arm based in Surrey

Mr Bujold also moved at around that time, so he says after getting a pension pack from Aon he rang up to notify the administration firm about his change of address in summer 2016, and gave his new address again on an emailed form the following October.

He adds that both his old employer and its administrator had his email and phone number.

Mr Bujold argues that although he was given deadlines about moving his pension, he asked for extensions from Aon and received no objections or warnings he could lose the employer contributions for good.

He says one important email he sent Aon about his pension went unanswered.

Mr Bujold admits he was waiting for his new employer to organise its pension scheme before finalising a transfer of his SC Johnson fund, but says if he had been told there was a 'hard deadline' and some of his cash was at risk, he would have temporarily moved it all to a private pension scheme instead.

'I’ve grown very frustrated in trying to reason with both companies and try to desperately recover the pension funds I worked very hard to accumulate during my time with them,' Mr Bujold told This is Money, adding that he feels he has lost out due to 'technicalities, missed communications'.

'I'm heartbroken about it,' he said. 'SC Johnson prides itself on being a family company. To them it's a small sum. To them, £3,700 is not a significant sum.'

Mr Bujold has not cashed a cheque from SC Johnson refunding his personal contributions, and insists he still wants both this money and his employer contributions transferred to his current firm's pension scheme.

He now plans to take his complaint to the Pensions Ombudsman.

What does Aon Hewitt say about the case?

'Acting on behalf of the trustees of the SC Johnson scheme, Aon issued a leaver pack to Shane Bujold on 17/8/16, with the instructions that he had three months to notify Aon if he wanted to transfer, otherwise we would settle benefits as a refund,' said Aon in a statement to This is Money.

'In the original scheme booklet sent to the member it clearly states that "if you take a refund of your contributions, you will not be entitled to any benefits in respect of the Company’s contributions to the Plan".

'The trustees and Aon went well beyond the requirements of the law and Mr Bujold was offered official extensions to the original deadline in October 2016; these were in December 2016 and August 2017.

'Overall, the member was given a period of over a year, from the point that the transfer pack was issued to him, to organise the transfer. During this time Aon chased him on numerous occasions for an update.

'As we had received no specific instructions from Mr Bujold, the matter was escalated to the trustees of the scheme and we received instructions from them to settle the benefits as a refund. Consequently, a refund cheque was issued to Mr Bujold on 8/11/17.

'We do not believe that this case is the same as the three Reckitt cases. Those are examples of where individuals had not kept their contact details up to date. This is the responsibility of the member and not doing so risks loss of benefits.'

Aon has been SC Johnson's pensions administration firm since 1997, and Reckitt Benckiser's since 2005.

What does a pension expert say?

'As with all employer pension schemes, it is the scheme rules that will dictate the options that are available to early leavers, but these must ultimately adhere to pensions legislation,' said Gary Smith, chartered financial planner at Tilney.

'As Mr Bujold had been a member of the scheme for over three months he should be entitled to either transfer his benefits, or ask for a refund of his personal contributions, less income tax.

'It is clear that he contacted the scheme administrator to identify what options were available to him, and this resulted in Aon Hewitt forwarding him a pack during August 2016.

'The Pensions Regulator requires the following information to be provided to early leavers of pension schemes:

"Within a reasonable period of a member leaving service as above, trustees of the scheme must provide them with a written notice giving adequate information to explain:

* the nature of the right acquired to a cash transfer sum or a contribution refund under the legislation;

* the amount of both the cash transfer sum and contribution refund;

* how and by when they may exercise the right; and

* such other information as may be prescribed".'

What are the pension transfer rules for early leavers?

Anyone who joined such a pension scheme before 1 October 2015 but then leaves their job within the first two years gets the right to transfer their employer contributions and receive a full refund of their own contributions.

However, the scheme will set a deadline for you to exercise your transfer rights after which you lose your employer contributions. The scheme has to inform early leavers of this deadline, but it is then their responsibility to meet it.

For new entrants to pension schemes since October 2015, these rules are only imposed if you leave a job within the first month, not two years as before. Anyone who stays longer than a month gets to keep whatever pension pot they have built up during their period of employment.

The change brought workplace pension schemes run by trustees into line with those contracted out to insurers, which already allowed workers to retain rights to old pots whenever they moved jobs.

Gary Smith of Tilney said trustees of pension schemes get to decide the deadlines for early leavers to transfer employer contributions elsewhere, and some might be more lenient than others in terms of the cut-off point.

He said that when a transfer deadline is missed and money recouped from someone's retirement pot - as has happened to Mr Bujold, and as nearly occurred to the three ex-Reckitt staff members - the cash would be returned to the employer.

When this happens, and you have exhausted your old employer's complaints procedure, you can take your case to an Ombudsman.

Mr Smith said an Ombudsman would look at issues like whether a pension scheme member had done everything reasonable to ensure mail was redirected after a house move, when deciding whether a firm had acted fairly.

The Pensions Ombudsman deals with complaints about the administration of work and personal pension schemes, while the Financial Ombudsman handles complaints about advice received when taking out a pension.

However, there is some overlap between the two, and staff will direct people to the right place depending on the nature of their case.

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